he black troops
under him to revolt; but Gordon soon frightened the men into obedience,
and sent their leader down the Nile to Gondokoro.

Yet, in spite of fever, discontent, laziness, and open rebellion, in ten
months (1874), writes one of his subordinates, 'he had garrisoned eight
stations with the seven hundred men whom he had found at Gondokoro too
frightened to stir a hundred yards outside the town, and had sent to
Cairo enough money to pay the expenses of the expedition for this year
and the next, while that of Baker had cost the Egyptian government
L1,170,000.

* * * * *

It seemed to Gordon that if he could establish a route from the great
lake Victoria Nyanza, further south, at the head of the Nile, to
Mombasa, on the Indian Ocean, trade would increase and goods be
exchanged far more easily and quickly than if they had to be brought
down the whole length of the Nile, which is often rendered impassable by
shallows and cataracts. Therefore, towards the end of 1874 he set up
posts from Gondokoro towards lake Albert Nyanza, hoping that directly
the Nile fell the steamers he had left at Khartoum might be able to
reach him. But here again he was beset with difficulties and dangers.
The Arabs were lazy, the Egyptians useless and often treacherous, many
of the tribes hostile; and to add to it all, it was almost impossible to
get past the rapids. The boats were very strong, but liable to be upset
at any instant by the plunging of the hippopotamuses in the river. Sixty
or eighty men were often straining at the ropes which were to drag the
craft along, and Gordon took his turn with the rest. Nobody in the camp
worked so hard as the commander. He cooked his food and cleaned his gun,
while the men stood by and stared. When there was nothing else to be
done he mended watches and musical boxes, which he took with him as
presents to the natives, and he kept himself well by walking fourteen
miles daily, in spite of the heat and mosquitoes.

[Illustration: He cleaned his gun while the men stood by and stared.]

'I do not carry arms, as I ought to do,' he said one day, 'for my whole
attention is devoted to defending the nape of my neck from the
mosquitoes,' the enemies he hated most of all. Still inch by inch the
troops fought their way along the river, till at length they reached the
lake of Albert Nyanza. Gordon established forts as he went, though in
the depths of his heart he knew full well